Hey, this is Rick Kaselj from ExercisesForInjuries.com. I got a question come in through customer support and it was, “What to do if you have wrist pain in the front rack front squat position or clean”.
There are a number of exercises that you can do that will end up decreasing the stress and pain on your wrists. You can do them prior to the front squat or clean exercises and I will get Orsy to go through them.
CLICK HERE to watch the YouTube video.
The first one is the Finger Rotation.
#1 – Finger Rotation
You’re just interlocking the fingers and rotate the wrists about ten times in one direction. With the movement you go counter-clockwise and then clockwise.
Finger Rotation
With this exercise we are just loosening up the wrists, working on the mobility of the wrist.
After the finger rotations you can follow up with wrist rotations.
#2 – Wrist Rotations
We are just rotating the wrists in one direction, once again going through about ten times and then going in the opposite direction with the wrists.
Wrist Rotations
Then we are going to follow that up with self massage of the forearms.
#3 – Self Massage of the Forearms
We are looking specifically at the flexors. Put your thumb on the forearm and then rub up and down on the forearm in order to loosen up or self massage that muscle. I just move up and down on the muscle and then work from side.
Self Massage of the Forearms
Do that for about 30 seconds to a minute. I am not trying to bruise the muscle, just trying to loosen up that forearm and provide a self massage in that forearm to loosen it up to get more range in the wrist which will put less stress on the wrist.
The next thing I want to do is stretch out those wrist forearms especially the flexors.
#4 – Straight Arm Wrist Flexor Stretch
Start off with your arms straight and then extending them back. Your arm is straight just below the shoulder extending the wrist back. We are looking at a light stretch in the forearm or the biceps.
Straight Arm Wrist Flexor Stretch
Holding for about 20 seconds and then completing twice on each side. You are looking for a light stretch. Not trying to rip apart the muscle.
#5 – Bent Elbow Wrist Flexor Stretch
After going straight arm I am going to bend the elbow and bring the wrist back. This targets the wrist flexors a lot more and is not as intensive as the arm being straight,but it targets the wrist flexors in a different way. Just like with the straight arm I am looking at twice. I end up holding for about 20 seconds.
Bent Elbow Wrist Flexor Stretch
The last exercise that I do would be a contract relax of the triceps, this depends on the individual .
#6 – Tricep Contract Relax
For the front rack position, you need to bring the elbows up. With Orsy, she has very good range of motion. If I do not have good range of motion in my shoulder, I end up compensating in my back or my thoracic spine in order to get the range of motion that I need.
What I can do about that is a tricep contract relax.
I would start off with a self test by lifting my elbows up and looking at the height of the elbows, reach.
Now I will do the triceps contract relax. How I would do it is I bring the elbow up as high as I can without compensating, then I bring the opposite hand just under my elbow and then I am pushing down into my hand for about 5 seconds with the elbow that is in the air.
Tricep Contract Relax
Then I relax and move the elbow that is up in the air, up to a point where I have resistance from the muscle and then I push down again.
Now I can go back to the self test and see how this exercise has helped.
If you are watching the video, you can see that I have already gained some more range of motion in the tricep or shoulder. The increase of range of motion, allows me to get more movement in my shoulder and put less stress on my wrists.
Remember with the pressing down, it is not as hard as I can but a good 25% of maximum effort. I am remembering to resisting with the opposite hand for a 5 seconds resetting contraction.
There you go! If you end up having wrist pain when it comes to the front squat position or the cling position, look at going through those exercises.
Finger rotations, followed by wrist rotations, forearm self massage, straight arm wrist flexor stretch, bent elbow wrist flexor stretch and then ending up with that tricep contract relax.
If you want to know more about these exercises then check out Fix My Wrist Pain, here:
There you go! This is Rick Kaselj from ExercisesForInjuries.com. saying take care and bye.